Dana Stopher: Council should admit it made a mistake

OMG City Council. You're considering appealing the apartment building decision?

No one can question the need for more affordable housing in Steamboat Springs. One could question the location, size, density and setbacks. These are in the code that the city adopted and are supposed to follow.

The argument that this would tell the community that there will be no variances is absurd. Having been on the planning commission for a number of years – I can attest that everyone thinks they deserve and will receive variances. I can also say that just about every applicant for these variances believes that "undue hardship" is applicable to their variance.

As to elected officials making a decision and sticking to it — well, everyone makes mistakes. Perhaps this is a time when our elected officials can admit to making one.

If you believe that the people of Steamboat Springs want bigger and denser buildings in town — change the code. That way everyone can play by the same rules.

Even if the appeal could be handled internally with minimal out-of-pocket expense, I would like to think that the city attorney's office has more important items to work on than saving face for the City Council. Perhaps they could start working on some new code language.